DuPont was first out of the box among the blue chips, reporting first-quarter net income of $1.49 billion, or $1.57 a share, up from $1.43 billion, or $1.52 a share, earned in the year-earlier quarter. Quartelry sales generated by the Wilmington, Del.-based chemicals and technology company, reached $11.23 billion from the prior year’s $10.03 billion. The consensus of analysts polled by FactSet Research had been for DuPont to show a profit of $1.55 a share of profit on sales of $11.21 billion. DuPont also affirmed its targeted range for 2012 profit of $4.20 to $4.40 a share; the FactSet-derived consensus stands at $4.26 a share.

Late Wednesday, Standard & Poor’s said OpenTable Inc.
OPEN
will take the place of soon-to-be-acquired will Zoll Medical Corp.
ZOLL
in the S&P SmallCap 600 Index after the close of trading April 20. In addition, Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc.
SPPI, -0.65%
will replace the soon-to-be-acquired Midas Inc.
MDS, +2.62%
in the same equity benchmark effective after the close of trading on April 24, S&P said.

The board of Great Wolf Resorts
WOLF
agreed to a sweetened $7-a-share cash acquisition offer by an Apollo Global Management
APO, +0.47%
affiliate. The offer was deemed superior to a similar bid lodged by affiliates of KSL Capital Partners last Sunday, meaning Great Wolf’s directors won’t proceed with consideration of the latest KSL offer, according to New York-based Apollo. Accordingly, the board’s recommending that Great Wolf stockholders tender into Apollo’s revised offer, extended to 9 a.m. Eastern time on May 2.

Along with reporting first-quarter financial results, Marriott
MAR, -1.45%
revised higher its full-year profit estimate, now pegged in a range of $1.58 to $1.69 a share, on an improved growth outlook for worldwide revenue per available hotel room, or RevPAR, for 2012. For the second quarter, Bethesda, Md.-based Marriott projected earnings of 39 cents to 43 cents a share, bracketing analysts’ consensus profit forecast of 42 cents.

Along with reporting above-consensus results for the first quarter ended March 24, Yum Brands Inc.
YUM, -0.87%
raised its full-year forecast for profit growth excluding special items to “at least 12%,” which would equate to $3.22 a share or higher. Read more.

Splunk Inc., the San Francisco-based searchable-data software company, priced its initial public offering of 13.5 million shares at $17 each ahead of trading to begin Nasdaq trading under the symbol SPLK on Thursday. The pricing came in well above the recently raised indicative range of $11 to $13 a share. The company’s putting up for sale some 12.5 million shares; another 992,722 shares are being offered by selling stockholders. Underwriters will have a 30-day option to buy up to a little more than 2 million additional Splunk shares if investor demand warrants.

Tumi Holdings Inc.
TUMI, +1.12%
priced at $18 the stock going up for sale in its IPO of nearly 18.8 million common shares. Net proceeds will total about $264.1 million, which will be used to buy all preferred stock and a portion of Tumi’s common stock owned by Doughty Hanson & Co. Managers Ltd., the So. Plainfield, N.J.-based company said. Tumi’s selling 15.6 million shares, while selling stockholders including funds managed by or entities affiliated with Doughty Hanson are offering nearly 3.2 million shares. Underwriters have a 30-day option to buy as many as 2.8 million additional shares from the selling stockholders. Tumi’s shares are expected to begin trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange. The company makes and markets luxury baggage and travel products.

Ahead of the company’s earnings report, the Rockwell Collins board approved a 30-cent-a-share quarterly dividend on common stock, a 25% increase over the Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based company’s previous payout. The new dividend’s payable June 4 to stockholders of record as of May 14, Rockwell Collins said.

The board of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP
KMP, +0.64%
cleared a quarterly dividend increase of more than 3%, to $1.20 per common unit, payable May 15 to unitholders of record as of April 30. The Houston-based partnership said distributions have been increased 43 times since current management took over in 1997.

In a similar vein, the board of Kinder Morgan Inc.
KMI, -0.02%
voted to increase the Houston-based company’s quarterly dividend, to 32 cents a share from 31 cents previously. The dividend’s payable May 16 to holders of record as of April 30, the energy company said.

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